Lead has been used as a material in projectiles for years. For example, lead has been used as a component in disintegrating bullets (bullets designed to disintegrate into fine powder upon exiting the barrel of a firearm from which they are fired) as well as frangible bullets (bullets designed to break apart upon impacting a target).
In recent years there has been a trend to produce bullets containing no lead. However, such lead-free bullets may not have the same performance characteristics as bullets containing lead because the materials used do not have the same properties as lead.
Accordingly, a lead-free bullet that meets or exceeds the performance of a comparable bullet containing lead would have significant utility.